Rambles about stuff I like.

A ramble that teeters between bleak and hope.

Blupid stinternet. My gorram internet’s been down for two days now – then it takes a whole 48 hours before Teksavvy will bother calling Rogers to get an order in to get a tech to come round my place and recharge the squirrels or whatever it is they do to fix the issue. I’m piggybacking on my parents internet, so I can’t download the 45gigs of music and television I want to consume.

*sigh* Life is hard.

Anyhoo, I suppose today will be a ramble about stuff, since I’m pretty tired and don’t have anything to whine about or intriguing to say.

I’ve been getting up between 5:00 and 6:00 every morning this week. For the first few days, it was awesome – I’d be at the gym by 9:00, which is the perfect dead time to get all the racks to myself. But then I went out Tuesday night and stayed up until 10:30pm – that’s super late! So I woke up tired at 6:00 the next day and that killed my motivation for the gym. Then Thursday rolls around and it’s my long day at school… then I stay up late yesterday and I’ve got to take the car in to get its winter tires changed… bleah.

When I’m finding more excuses than reasons to go to the gym, then it’s up to me to turn it around. I’ll try again by going to bed early on Saturday so I can get to the gym by 8:00am Sunday morning. Do some squats and deadlifts and a bunch of cardio, try not to gorge myself throughout the day on crap food and hopefully start making a dent in this fat middle I call a body.

I read, “Think and Grow Rich” recently, which I feel like I’ve mentioned recently. It’s the granddaddy of all goals books, and everything that pertains to goals can be found in this book. My plan is to read, “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie next. Although I plan on reading a chapter of Think and Grow Rich everyday for the rest of my life until I’m a millionaire. But the author of Think and Grow Rich was a student of Dale Carnegie, so I think it would probably benefit me to read Carnegie’s book as well.

I’m finding that a lot of advice that can be considered “old timey” is likely the best advice. This is back when Western society was thriving and people didn’t call the cops because their feelings got hurt. I sort of think that the baby boomers, who were the first generation of people to have all their needs met, basically ruined society. But I also think that society goes in cycles, and it goes like: poor, prosperous, fat on the hog, decline. Right now, we’re moving from fat on the hog into decline, and the West has a hard 20 or 30 years ahead of itself.

However, the fortunes of society at large need not be suffered by all individuals. In each and every stage of the “society cycle”, one can make a fortune. People will generally always need “stuff” – at the very least food, shelter, water and blogs. *snerk*

At the far end of the sci-fi spectrum exists the idea of a post-scarcity society. This is a world where, through the use of science and technology, all the basic needs – water, food, shelter – can be met for each and every person on the planet. Is this an ideal future? It can be, or it could lead to complete chaos. If all my immediate needs are met, what do I do to pass the time? Not everyone will discover the magic of goals and the need to create a life full of meaningful and fulfilling work. Then again, if all our days are full of free time, this could lead to a new renaissance. When people aren’t burdened with the necessity of survival, will that lead to more creativity? One thing is almost certain, it will lead to a lot of shitty artists trying to express themselves.

Then again, if one is inclined to believe that the world is run by a bunch of sociopathic wealthy elites, then it’s not necessarily in their best interest to have a bunch of bored, well-fed individuals looking for meaning. Also, does a post-scarcity society mean the collapse of wealth? I think people are inherently competitive, and someone will always be striving to be the ‘best’ at whatever option is available.

Anyhoo… that’s what I’m thinking about today. It’s a lazy Friday for me… Glad I finally got my 15 minutes done. Now maybe it’s time for some Starcraft…